Iron valence state of fine-grained material from the Jupiter family comet 81P/Wild 2 – A coordinated TEM/STEM EDS/STXM study

Abstract

The oxidation state of transition metal elements is an indicator of the environmental conditions during formation and history of extraterrestrial materials. We studied the iron valence state of fine-grained material from a bulbous track extracted from the Stardust cometary collector. It likely originated from primitive material of the comet Wild 2. We used synchrotron-based Scanning Transmission X-ray Microscopy (STXM) to collect Fe L3-XANES spectra at a spatial resolution of about 20nm. Maps of Fe valence state were combined with the elemental maps recorded by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) with a transmission electron microscope (TEM), on the same areas and with a comparable electron probe size (5–20nm). As for most Stardust fine-grained material, the samples are severely damaged by the hypervelocity impact in the aerogel collector blocks. They show of a wide range of oxidation state at a micrometer scale, from Fe metal to Fe3+. This heterogeneity of oxidation state can be due to the extreme conditions of the collection. Two major parameters can favor changes in redox state. The first is the high temperature regime, known to be highly heterogeneous and to have locally reached extreme values (up to 2000K). The second is the local chemical environment. It may contain elements that could favor a reduction or oxidation reaction within the flash-heated Wild 2 fragments. Comparison of maps by STXM and EDS shows evidence for several correlation trends between element concentrations and the iron valence state. These observations, together with the study of a melted rim of a larger particle, suggest that the redox state was not completely redistributed within the impact melts. These local signatures are compatible with precursors that could have been close to primitive matrix material of chondrites or to chondritic interplanetary dust particles. On average, the fine-grained material from Wild 2 displays a molar fraction (Fe2+oxide+Fe3+oxide)/(total Fe) equal to 0.80±0.10. It appears more oxidized than the average value measured for the comet, when done on larger particles (Westphal et al., 2009). This fine-grained material from Wild 2 does not seem to have sampled reducing environments in the solar nebulae in contrast with the larger particles of Wild 2. This observation confirms the high degree of diversity of materials in Wild 2 and is in good agreement with the dual distribution of high temperature minerals and matrices in carbonaceous chondrites.